Hi everyone. New chapter here, though it's a bit shorter than usual. I'm slowly getting through the writer's block, so hopefully things'll pick up again soon.

As always, thanks for reading!

Previously on The Nine RED Men Incident: The Medic Chapters

The Medic, after landing in Gensokyou, found himself lost in a forest of bamboo. After finding that the forest somehow managed to warp around him so that he constantly approached the same spot, he was approached by a being claiming to be a forest spirit who would help him out of the forest for a small fee. However, upon hearing someone calling for a 'Tewi,' she ran off, and he ended up running into a rabbit youkai while chasing after her. As the crash had somehow broken her bones, he healed her with his medigun, which she was both impressed and confused by. She said that she worked for a doctor named Eirin, and would help lead him to her after finding Tewi, the rabbit youkai who had pretended to be a forest spirit, and ran off to find her after the Medic pointed her in the last direction he'd seen Tewi heading. After a little while, during which the Medic had experimented on some of the bamboo in the forest, she returned and began to lead him towards Eientei.

We now return you to The Nine RED Men Incident: The Medic Chapters.

After a short walk, during which the Medic talked with the rabbit-woman (whose name was Reisen, apparently) at length about what sort of medicine this Master Eiren practiced (mostly pharmaceuticals, though she was also skilled in traditional surgery), about why Reisen's bones broke so easily (apparently a side effect of a drug that had been tested on her), and about who this "Tewi" was (a trickster rabbit youkai who often set up traps and scams for wanderers), they arrived at the Eientei Clinic.

"And here we are, Mr. Medic, the Eientei Clinic." It looked to the Medic more like an old-fashioned oriental-style mansion than any sort of medical clinic or center he'd ever been to. But upon entering, he was greeted with the familiar waiting room of hospitals everywhere, consisting of some long benches and magazine racks (filled with such titles as The Bunbunmaru Times, and Kappaneering Monthly), with the minor difference that the person manning the front desk seemed to also be a rabbit youkai instead of a human being. They had short brown hair and wore a pink dress similar to the one he'd seen Tewi wearing earlier, and there seemed to be a small cut out of one of her ears. She waved lazily.

"Hey, Reisen. Good job catching Tewi." She turned to look at the Medic. "Oh, who's this? A customer?"

"Thanks Mikasa," Reisen said with a small grin. "Actually, this is Mr. Medic, apparently. He's also a doctor, and wanted to talk with Master Eirin. Is she busy?"

"Lemme check." Mikasa flipped through a notebook on her desk. "I think she's doing the rounds right now, but she should be done pretty soon, I mean you know the inpatients we have," she said.

Reisen sighed. "Yeah. Yeah I do." She turned to the Medic. "Alright, could you please wait here until she's free?"

"Could I see ze inpatients? I vould love to see vhat kind of diseases you have here," the Medic said, cheerily.

"Um, well, we really try to respect the patient's privacy…"

"I svear I vill not do anything to make them feel uncomfortable. And I am ze best on ze team about keeping secrets! I mean, I haven't told anyone about Scout's athlete's fo-vhooops! Heh, how embarrassing." Reisen looked at him with an eyebrow raised. "Oh, fine. I'll vait here zhen."

"Thank you."

Reisen walked down the hallway and turned a corner, vanishing from the Medic's sight. He went and sat down on a bench, taking a random magazine out of the magazine rack as he sat. It was called The Faithful Sun and seemed to be about the large number of religions in Gensokyou and what each was up to. To the Medic, it was rather boring. He'd never been very interested in religion, and though the idea of a soul was somewhat interesting to him, he'd prefer to do some sort of experimentation to find it, rather than just believe what someone told him was true. He supposed the respawn machine was sort of his attempt to find out about souls, but there'd never been much conclusive evidence to be found with it. It was rather frustrating. In any case, he put down the magazine after a few minutes and decided to inspect his medigun instead. As he did so, he became aware of the fact that the rabbit at the front desk was staring at him. He looked up at her and said, "Yes?"

"Oh sorry, I was just wondering where you were from. You don't seem to be from Gensokyou."

"Vell no, I'm not. I'm from Germany, originally, zhough don't tell Soldier zat. He'd probably try to kill me. Zhough I doubt he vould be able to do much." He chuckled. "But now, it's my turn. Vhat kind of diseases do you usually get here? I vonder how zey evolved differently here then vhere I'm from," he said, excited.

"Diseases, huh? Well, to be honest, we don't get many here. It's mostly broken bones, sprains, lacerations, y'know the usual. Every now and then there'll be some people with a cold or flu, but usually we can cure those pretty quick." The Medic tsked in irritation. The youkai's eyes brightened. "Oh! But I also remember hearing that there was some sort of spider youkai in the underground who could control diseases. If you get the chance, you could talk to her."

"Control zem? Ooh zat's exciting. I vonder if I could extract zat power…"

Mikasa laughed. "Well, you're welcome to try, but considering what happened when Miss Eirin tried it, be sure to bring cures to pretty much every disease imaginable."

The Medic grimaced. "Ahhh…Yes, I suppose zat vould be an appropriate response. But ve could do so much vith zat power…" He sighed. "Perhaps later zhen."

"My turn again," said Mikasa, smiling. "What's it like outside the border? I've never been."

"Eh? Ze border? Is zat vhat Merasmus broke zhrough?" the Medic murmured to himself. "Hmm, vell it's different. Very different. I mean, to be fair, I've been somevhat…out of touch vith much of ze goings on outside of vork recently, so I really can't say much beyond my vork. So, let's see, vhat's a fast way to explain zis…" He trailed off, thinking. "Vell, my job used to be healing some ungrateful svinehunds as ve fought ze BLU team, but zhen Grey Mann showed up and ve kind of lost our employers, so ve had to fight his robots, zhough sometimes ve'd have to fight BLU team as vell. So basically, ze vorld outside consists of violence. And Australia, but zhey have zheir wrestling and moustaches and zings to worry about."

"Really? Hmm, Ms. Sanae said something completely different."

"Vait, zis 'Sanae' you speak of, she is also from ze outside?"

"Oh yes. She came here, oh, seven years ago now? She's come over here a few times when she got a cold or something. She said that the outside world's pretty peaceful. That most of the violence she saw was on television."

"Television? I vasn't aware zat vas so videspread…I've only seen it used for viewing security footage. But zhen again, I have been relatively isolated for quite a vhile." He looked off thoughtfully. "Perhapz ze vorld progressed vhile I vasn't paying attention."

"Hmm, I guess I'll keep that in mind then."

"So now it's my turn again, correct?" Mikasa nodded. "Alright zhen. Vhat is zis 'Eirin' like?"

"Miss Eirin? Hmm," Mikase said, hand on her chin. "Well I guess a good way to describe her would be that she's pretty intense. When she starts doing experiments, which is most of the time, nothing will distract her until she's finished, one way or another. She's super smart, too. Which is great for the experiments and making cures and all that, but she's kinda…distant, a lot of the time. She doesn't really speak to many people, aside from giving orders or prescriptions. She always gives you this analytical gaze and, to be honest, it can be kind of scary, like she only sees you as a test subject."

"Is that how you see me then, Mikasa?" came a voice from behind her, causing the rabbit youkai's ears to stand on end and a shiver work its way up her body. The Medic glanced up from the notes he'd been taking to see a tall woman in a strange red and blue dress, long white hair tied into a braid, with a few strands framing her face.

"Mi-mi-mi-mistress Eirin! I was just, um, just saying how some other people might see you, not me!"

"Mmmhmm," the woman, who the Medic assumed must be Eirin, glared at Mikasa, her eyes narrowed. Then she let out a sigh. "Well, I suppose you're right. That was a relatively accurate description." She raised her eyes to the Medic's face. "You are the Medic Reisen informed me of, then," her expression one of vague interest.

"Indeed. And you must be ze 'Mistress Eirin,' she informed me of," the Medic said, unable to keep the excitement out of his voice. "Oh, zis is so exciting!"

Eirin raised an eyebrow quizzically. "Is it?"

"Vell, it is for me at least. I've alvays vondered vhat sort of diseases can spring up in an isolated environment such as zis one! Just zink of all the possible uses of zhem!"

"Hmm," Eirin said, tilting her head to the side. "I suppose that was exciting, the first time." She straightened up and nodded. "For my part, I'm rather interested in that there," she said, pointing towards the medigun. "If what Reisen told me is true, that's quite a powerful piece of technology."

"Yes, vell, I'm quite proud of it myself. Took quite a bit of ingenuity. And luck. Am I right in zinking zhat you are offering an exchange of information?" he said.

"Yes, that's right," she said, nodding.

"I see." The Medic frowned. "Is zhere anything else you vould like to know instead? Zhis machine is rather special. And, to be honest, I'm not sure if I could replicate it in zis place. And if you're, vell, not very nice people, giving you zis technology vould be rather foolish of me, vouldn't it?"

"Fair enough. But I'm afraid you probably don't have any other information I would like to know. And while I could just take it from you," she said, pointing to the front doors, which were now flanked by two rather well-armed looking rabbits, "I would prefer letting you explain it to me than having to spend time taking it apart."

The Medic, who had turned to look at the rabbits, scowled. "Are you threatening me zhen? Zhat vould be a bad idea. I am, after all, a combat medic. I am no stranger to violence." He got a grip on his ubersaw.

"I see." Eirin said, a touch of sadness mixed with desperation in her voice. "Then I guess we'll have to take it by force," she drew out her bow and notched an arrow.

There air was tense, and the Medic knew that if they charged him, there wasn't going to be much he could do to stop them. He wasn't foolish enough to believe that he could take on three people at once.

"W-wait," Mikasa, who had been trembling silently behind the desk, said. "You're both-you're both being stupid."

Eirin and the Medic both turned their gazes to her. "Oh really," Eirin said, icily. "How so?"

"Mi-mi-mi-mi-mistress Eirin's not-not-not a b-bad person. S-she j-just w-wants to heal p-people, especially-"

"Mikasa," Eirin said, in a dangerous tone of voice. "Stop talking now."

Mikasa took one look at Eirin's glowering face and shut up, ducking below the table.

"Now where were we," Eirin said, turning back towards the Medic.

"Vhat vas zat about, zhen?" the Medic asked, still holding his ubersaw out cautiously. "Who is zis person you vish to heal?"

Eirin grimaced. "There is no one person in particular I want to heal. That was just Mikasa here," she nodded towards the desk, "making things up."

"Is zhat right? I see," the Medic said. He sighed. "Vell zhen, I believe ve vere about to fight, yes?"

"I believe so," Eirin said, but before she could re-aim her bow, a rabbit youkai with surgical gloves and a facemask on ran into the room.

"Mistress Eirin, mistress Eirin," she yelled, pulling her facemask down so she could be heard clearly.

"I'm rather busy Nao, can it wait?"

"It's started again," the youkai apparently named Nao said, shaking her head.

Eirin immediately dropped her bow to her side, turning towards Nao. "Already?" she said, sounding worried. Nao nodded. "Damn. They're happening faster now." Eirin bit her thumb, thinking.

"Vhat is happening faster?" the Medic asked, confused.

Eirin glared at him, then looked down. "Damn. I guess I have no choice." She looked at the Medic, and reached out her hand. "Come with me." The Medic opened his mouth to refuse, but before he could, she said, "Please. I," she shook her head, "no, they need your help."

The Medic frowned, suspecting a trap, but she looked like she was being honest. And she already had the upper hand, so there was no reason for her to lie and create a false reason to catch him off-guard. After a moment's consideration, he nodded. "Alright. Take me to zhem, zhen."

"This way," Eirin said, and began rushing down the corridors, while the Medic ran after her.